In a bid to attract new users, ZEE5, the video streaming platform of Zee Entertainment, will be offering a lot of content behind paywall for free to new users.
ZEE5 is a freemium platform which means that it has free content as well as films and series behind paywall.
And now it will be offering 1,500 movie titles that were behind paywall for free in order to get new users on board.
"We realised that in any business there are early movers and adapters and then there are fence-sitters and uninitiated. So, we asked the fence-sitters and the uninitiated what will be the trigger for them to opt for ZEE5. Viewers told us that they wanted to watch more new content on the platform," said Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India.
Under its new campaign, Any Time Manoranjan, ZEE5 will also be offering Korean dramas for free.
In addition, Kalra said, it will have a strong lineup of regional movies which are going free to cater to the viewers of Bharat. What he means is that ZEE5 is focusing on the target group aged 25-45 from Hindi-speaking areas as well as markets down south.
This is why ZEE5 is not looking at this as a temporary strategy.
"We will be adding more content which will be available for free. It is a long-term strategy that we are looking at," he added.
When asked what will be available behind paywall if a lot of content is being offered for free, he said that originals and high-investment content will be behind paywall as subscribers are of high priority for the platform.
The Q3FY21 results of Zee Entertainment mentioned that ZEE5 has 65.9 million global monthly active users and 5.4 million global daily active users. The platform registered 133 minutes average watch time per viewer per month.
According to a report by Omdia, an independent analyst and consultancy firm, ZEE5 has around 27 lakh paid subscribers. However, the report doesn't add subscription from bundled offers.
Even Kalra did not give any specific number in terms of new user growth they expect from the new strategy. But he said that he expects a multi-fold growth as willingness to pay amid Indians has gone up.
While Zee5 is rejigging its content for new users, it is also adding more content on the platform this year.
"By the end of this month, we will be launching Silence starring Prachi Desai who is making her OTT debut and Manoj Bajpayee. We started with Married Women on Women's Day, Kubool Hai (soap opera) will be coming in a new avatar. Then there will be a sequel of the web series Abhay, Rangbaaz. So, every week there is a new content lined up," he added.
Kalra added that ZEE5 will soon be adding Vijay The Master, the Hindi version of Tamil film Master, on the platform. This will open up new audience for Tamil movie creators, he added.
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